Fiji is to press for a complete ban of purse seine vessels working in the western and central Pacific. About 200 vessels, mainly from Asia, are licensed to work in the region under Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) rules.
Konisi Yabaki, Fiji's Minister of Fisheries and Forests, said purse seine fishing "is environmentally unfriendly and should be controlled, minimized or completely banned. Its excessive use in the region is detrimental to our healthy tuna stocks and to our local industry," he said.
Mr. Yabaki has announced a temporary freeze on the issuing of licenses in Fiji's 1.26 million square kilometer Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). He acted after pressure from local tuna fishers who said that their industry was in crisis because of the collapse of the local tuna stocks caused by overfishing.
Tuna is a major industry and export earner for the country with overseas earnings worth between F$40 million and F$50 million a year.
There has been controversy in the country after the fisheries department allowed the number of tuna licenses to rise to 110; twice the number recommended for preserving the stock's integrity by the Pacific Community's tuna research department.
Mr. Yabaki said poor fishing in the Fiji EEZ could also be due to weather, in particular the water temperature variations caused by the El Nino weather pattern.
The Fiji fisheries ministry has set an annual tuna catch limit of 15,000 tons, which is 5,000 tons more than the Pacific Community’s recommendations.
Graham Southwick, who heads The Fiji Fish Marketing Group, the country's largest tuna exporter, described a tuna management plan adopted last year as "a farce" with nearly every well-intentioned directive “subverted, twisted or circumvented to fulfill the agenda of corrupt fisheries officials.â€
Banks had ceased to finance fishing vessels. Of the 96 vessels licensed and currently working, only 14 were not foreign-owned and only two were run by indigenous Fijians. About nine to 12 licenses reserved for Fijians were controlled by Chinese companies using “front man†scams.
Another worry, according to Mr, Southwick, was the impact on the Fiji stock caused by Asian vessels licensed to fish in the Vanuatu and Solomon Islands EEZ’s illegal fishing by unlicensed foreigners and the use of local partners by a large number of foreign vessels for unloading their catches.